


Rejuvenation

by Harukami



Category: Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 19:19:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years later, Seiya returns for a visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rejuvenation

Sometimes the loneliness feels crushing, which is mostly embarrassing. She has her fellow soldiers, she has her princess, and with the return of the starseeds, their planet is also returning to what it should be. Not everything and not everyone -- there was devastation beyond reckoning, and deaths as well as starseeds being stolen. But enough. Their world is back the way she'd never thought it would be again, and Fireball is working hard to bring everything into order, arrange aid, aim toward recovery.

It keeps them busy, too -- the last three years have been busy enough that, at least, she doesn't have to worry about idle hands. That doesn't mean her mind is busy. They've never not been on the run, busy, working for their future, and she's always been the sort of person who can multi-task mentally, whether or not she wants to. The others have certainly been scornful enough about it in the past.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Maker asks.

She makes a face. "My mind's just far from here right now. Sorry, guys."

"In another universe, right?" Healer says. Her tone isn't really sympathetic, though it's not cruel, either. "Because there's not enough to do in this one."

"I know, already!"

"Sometimes I think you don't really know, Fighter," Healer says, with a drawn-out sigh. "You're stubborn, but not in a good way. Look, just let things be. That happened, but it's in the past now. You'll have plenty of time to go visit in the future, so get over it and focus on what's in front of you."

In the future? Usagi will be 19 now. Fighter tries to imagine her at 19 and can't. She'll probably look much the same as always. Perhaps her face and body have matured, but she doubts her expressions would have. She'll probably get food all over her face as she eats, still. Probably still yawn with her mouth open and roll her eyes expressively and stick her tongue out when annoyed. She has a child in the future, doesn't she? Has that child been born yet? What if, Fighter thinks, she went to visit now and came across Usagi heavily pregnant? What would she even do? Feel her belly, probably. Talk to it. Promise to take the kid for sweets. They could ditch her mom and have fun. C'mon, it'd be great.

Something like that.

"Fighter, hello? Ugh, she's doing it again," Maker says, and puts a hand to her forehead. "What would our Princess even think?"

"Your Princess would understand," Fireball says, from the doorway.

All three of them snap upright. It's been four days for Fighter, at least, since she last saw Fireball, who was travelling around Kinmoku to make public appearances at the sites which still hadn't recovered. "Princess!" they chorus.

"Yes, all right, enough of that," Fireball says. She looks tired, dark circles under her eyes, but is smiling. "Let's be realistic about this. We've all been working very hard, and honestly, I think all three of you could use a vacation. You'll be able to work harder if you take a little time to rest yourselves up, isn't that right?"

Maker shakes her head. "Princess, _you_ can't take a vacation, so we can't either-"

"It's not right," Healer chimes in.

Fighter knows she should speak up too, even if she doesn't really feel it. Of course she doesn't want her princess labouring alone. Of course she doesn't want to have a nice relaxing time off on another planet while Fireball continued to work away endlessly. "You don't have to do that for me," she says, instead. "It's all right, Princess."

"Well, I know," Fireball says. "You'd work until you dropped if I asked it. But I'm asking the opposite. My heart will be more at ease if I know I am not, at least, running you into the ground. Please. Fighter, Healer, Maker. Take some time and relax. Wherever you want and doing whatever you want. And then return to me."

Blinking back tears, Fighter puts a hand over her heart. "Yes, Princess," she says.

The trip back to Earth is tiring, but rewarding in the simple fact that it's a trip back to earth. Some nights on Kinmoku she'd wake in her room and feel an intense sense of homesickness for a world that wasn't even her home. But it's coming now: the smell of the air, the sound of the ocean, the bustle of traffic in Azabu-Juban.

This time, she doesn't disguise herself. There's no need, and really, the opposite -- if people saw her as famous idol Seiya Kou, who withdrew from the public for reasons undisclosed, getting the free time to do what she wanted would be the hard part. Instead, she dresses for the warm summer weather and for her own freedom, trying not to stress too much about style -- tosses on a button-down t-shirt and cut-off shorts, puts on her sunglasses just in case she's recognizable despite her very different figure, wears her hair loose. It feels weird, in a place where she'd always been wearing another identity like a suit of armour, but that's appropriate, she decides. She was a knight before, searching for her princess. Here she's just a would-be rejected lover coming to rekindle a friendship instead.

Seiya finds her way to Usagi's house easily. A woman opens the door and stares in confusion. Usagi's mother? Seiya lifts a hand. "Hi," she says. Only the habit of performance keeps it from sounding stilted. "I'm an old friend of Du -- of Usagi's from a few years back, we went to the same school. I was back in town, so I thought--"

"Oh!" The woman's hands fly up. "Usagi doesn't live here any more, she moved in with her husband-- here, do you want me to give her a call? She'd come right over--"

It wasn't unexpected. Still, caught off guard in some way that Seiya can't name, she laughs, and says, "No, it's okay. Just give me her new address and I'll try there. If I miss her, I don't want her to feel bad about it."

Usagi's mother does, and Seiya smiles and waves and heads back out. Something aches, but not really in a bad way. Good for you, she thinks, and doesn't let herself run away. She follows the directions, takes the elevator up in the apartment building, and checks the number three times before knocking.

The voice on the other side is so familiar that tears come to her eyes -- _"I'll get it, Mamo-chan, it's probably Mako-chan, she said she was gonna come over with baking later!"_ and she's still looking, she's sure, teary and happy and stupid when the door opens.

"Hey Dumpling," she says, and catches Usagi when she launches herself.


End file.
